


always busy being make believe

by blackmustache



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 01:36:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackmustache/pseuds/blackmustache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Chris joins some of the cast on a trip to London for a convention, an awkward encounter with a naked Darren and some late night flirting lead him to contemplate his feelings for his co-star. With Ashley on hand to offer her unique brand of support, Chris is just trying to survive the weekend without completely embarrassing himself in front of Darren, his friends, or the eight hundred strangers he's there to meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	always busy being make believe

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **gleebang** on LJ
> 
> The fic is set this coming summer and I tried to keep up with real life events the best that I could, but if you see something that doesn't seem to fit, it was probably announced too late for me to change without having a mild panic attack. I was trying to be fluid with my mentions of season four but I was absolutely convinced there would be a tour this summer, so by the time it was confirmed there isn't going to be one I'd written so much I just had to leave the references in there and hope nobody minded! 
> 
> The title comes from [Love Is A Laserquest](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFW5VLx2Guc) by the Arctic Monkeys.

**Thursday Night & Friday**

"’Sup," Ashley greeted Chris as she settled herself on the stool beside his at the bar.

"This plane has a _bar_ ," he mused, taking a sip of his water. "I almost feel like I should order some kind of ridiculous cocktail just because I can."

"So why haven't you?" She nodded her head back towards his seat, where one perfectly attentive steward was currently turning it into a bed, complete with sheets and everything. "Have a cocktail. Alcohol makes you sleepy, you want to sleep, it's the perfect solution." She smiled at the barman. "I would like the Missionary’s Downfall, please, and he will have-" she broke off as she scanned the cocktail menu. "He’ll have the Indian Summer."

"I-" Chris started to protest as he grabbed the menu from Ashley but it was pretty half-hearted, especially once he’d seen the ingredients of the drink. "That does sound good."

The bartender smiled at them. "Coming right up."

"So," Ashley started, as they watched him make the drinks. "You’re seriously just going to go to sleep?"

Chris stared at her. "It’s like two in the morning in London. We have _work_ to do when we land. I can’t believe _everybody_ isn’t just going to go to sleep." He scrunched his nose up a little. "Except Darren. I can definitely believe he’s not going to sleep."

"Darren has no plans to sleep," Ashley confirmed, nodding. "Unless they turn out the lights and force him. Jenna said she might get them to make up her bed and then just watch movies until she falls asleep, but she’s not, like, actively pursuing a suspension of her consciousness."

"Why do you always know everything?"

"I’m chatty."

"That’s one word for it," Chris muttered teasingly as he thanked the bartender and took a sip of his drink. "Wow, that _is_ good."

"Who knows you better than you know yourself?" She grinned at the rhetorical question as she tasted her own drink and smacked her lips in satisfaction. "So tell me, Christopher. What exactly are we doing when we get to London?"

He looked at her. "The convention? The entire reason we’re flying halfway across the world for less than a week?"

"Yup. That one."

"Ashley," he whined, rolling his eyes. "How can you not _know_?"

She shrugged. "You said you were going. I thought that would probably be fun." She waved her hand around dismissively with a grin. "My agent looked at the contract. Said it would be fine. I'm assuming it's sorta like that thing in Australia last year."

Chris sighed, much more dramatically than was necessary. "Yes. It's like that thing in Australia. We’re going to sign autographs, take pictures with fans, that kind of thing."

"And it's for the whole three days?"

"Pretty much. It doesn’t really start until Friday night. Also they want us to judge the costume contest on Saturday night. I’m weirdly the most excited about that part." He looked at her again. "I can’t believe you didn’t read _anything_ they sent over."

"Why would I do that? That’s what you’re for."

"What’s what he’s for?" Darren appeared on Chris’s other side and sat down. "Ooh! Cocktails, nice. That looks good." He reached over and picked up Chris’s drink and took a sip, then pulled a face. "Ew. Cilantro."

"Serves you right," Chris grumbled playfully, kicking Darren.

Darren smirked and reached across Chris, making grabby hands for Ashley's drink. "What's yours?"

"It's _mine_ , is what it is," she retorted, pulling her glass further away from Darren. "It's free. Get your own."

"I just want to taste it!"

"Aren't you supposed to be laying low so that it's a surprise when you show up?" Chris pointed out, interrupting. Darren had signed up for the convention months ago but had already been tied down to shoot a movie and was also trying to record an album in between. As usual he'd agreed to pretty much everything he'd been asked to do instead of turning one or two things down, so he was worried that if filming overran he would have to skip the con. He desperately didn't want to disappoint anybody if he had to cancel his appearance, so when the organiser had suggested they keep Darren's attendance a secret until the opening ceremony it had seemed like the perfect solution.

It was, however, easier said than done. Darren had arrived at the airport over an hour before the rest of the cast, and then spent two hours purposefully sitting at the wrong gate wearing a ridiculous beanie hat and a pair of basic, boring (not pink or yellow or anything else that would stand out) shades.

"Not until we land," Darren replied cheerfully. "Until then I can – what's the opposite of laying low? Jumping around?"

"Not on the plane, please," Chris whined, crossing his arms on the bar and resting his head on them until he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Your bed is all set, sir," a voice cut in, and Chris looked up to see the smiling stewardess standing beside Darren.

"Thanks," he mumbled, finishing off his drink and standing up. "I'm going to try and get some sleep. You guys should too," he added, staring pointedly at Darren, who just grinned and shrugged.

He was woken three hours later by Jenna crawling into bed beside him. "Darren's like a freaking starfish," she grumbled, curling up behind Chris. "Fell asleep watching movies with him. He's hogging my bed now."

"Go sleep in his then," Chris croaked. 

"His is still a _chair_ ," she whined, and Chris sighed, knowing he would get back to sleep faster if he just let Jenna stay there. 

"If I kick you, don't assume I'm asleep and it was unintentional. I can assure you it's not." He closed his eyes again and tried to get comfortable. These beds were really not designed for two people. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and he turned over to face Jenna, elbowing her in the face as he did so.

"Ow! I didn't think you were serious!"

Chris waved his hand to shut her up. "Darren's _sleeping_? We need to get photographic evidence. For the internet."

"He's a secret," she mumbled, closing her eyes and trying to ignore Chris. 

"We can post the picture when he stops being a secret." He sighed as she steadfastly ignored him, realising that if he stood up to take a photo of Darren he would probably end up relinquishing his whole bed to Jenna. Instead he closed his eyes and tried to banish the idea from his head.

Eventually he drifted off again and was woken for breakfast a couple of hours before they were due to arrive. Jenna was back in her seat chatting with Ashley, and Darren was curled up in his own chair for the first time since take off. Chris stretched out and stood up, going for a walk around the cabin while his bed was switched back into a seat for landing. 

"Hey," he smiled, stopping beside Darren's seat and hopping from one leg to the other, shaking out the stiffness. "Ready to go back into ninja mode?"

Darren grinned. "Ninja Darren is good to go." 

"I would not have agreed to all this ridiculous sneaking around after a twelve hour flight, you know. I can't believe you did."

"It's not so bad," Darren shrugged. "I'll just go super slowly. Go to the bathroom a few times. Different bathrooms obviously, so that nobody thinks there must be something wrong with, like, my guts or whatever and try to help me out."

"Rather you than me."

–

And really, Darren thought, he kind of agreed with Chris at this point. He had been the last person to get off the plane - after he had hidden behind a curtain watching all of the economy passengers disembark, the cabin crew had escorted him onto the jet bridge and then he'd dawdled on the way to customs. His hat was pulled down over his forehead and his scarf was wrapped around his neck so many times that it covered his chin as well, despite the fact that it was July. He'd tried to convince one of the stewards to lend him their uniform – nobody would be looking out for him in a Virgin Atlantic outfit after all – but it had been pointed out to him by Ashley that the cabin crew had their own fast track customs line and while it might help him from a disguise perspective, it wasn't going to help pass the time between the rest of them getting picked up and somebody coming back for him an hour or so later.

He stopped off at every bathroom he saw on his way to the customs hall. When he finally got there and joined the back of a line, most of the people from their flight had made it through already. This time he was thankful for the short wait - standing around in a line with people who might recognise him was usually fine, but not part of his ninja plan right now. 

By the time he reached baggage claim his case was sitting on the floor beside the empty carousel, so he grabbed it and went into yet another bathroom to hide out for a while longer. Eventually his phone buzzed with a message from Jake, the guy organising the convention, letting him know that Chris and the others were safely checked into the hotel and somebody would be over to collect him in the next fifteen minutes. He made his way slowly out of baggage claim and hung out in the duty free store at arrivals for a while, carefully browsing items in corners and hoping no sales assistants tried 'help' him until finally his phone vibrated again with the message he was waiting for. 

As he headed out into arrivals, he kept his head down, glancing up every few steps until he spotted a man who looked like he was in his early thirties holding a board marked 'JAKE VINCENT'. They had agreed in advance that having Darren's name on the board might have been a bit of a giveaway, and while Jake knew who he was looking for, Darren didn't, and this was their compromise. He shook Jake's hand and smiled, and then he was bundled outside and into the waiting car before he could even introduce himself properly. 

Once he was safely in the car, the driver pulled away from the waiting area and Jake turned to Darren. "I've been running these events for almost twenty years and I don't think I've ever had to run a covert operation quite like that one!"

Darren laughed. "Yeah – I don't think it's exactly something Jason Bourne would have been proud of, but I think we did an okay job! I just hope it turns out it's been worth it."

–

He was just climbing out of the shower when Chris came bursting into the bathroom. Darren froze for a second and then fumbled for a towel to wrap around himself. "Um."

Chris's eyes were wide. "Darren. Are you completely insane?"

Darren blinked. As far as he was aware, _Chris_ was the one who had just barged into the bathroom of a hotel room he was not staying in. "Um?"

"You left your hotel room _unlocked_! Anybody could have walked in!"

Darren cleared his throat. "Uh - I think 'anybody' just did."

Chris flushed. "I was proving a point. I... will wait for you out in the bedroom."

He flounced out of the bathroom as quickly as he had entered it and closed the door behind him, then flopped onto the end of Darren's bed. He wished he had stopped to think about the potential Darren nudity _before_ he'd opened the door.

Chris had always been pretty good at ignoring his feelings about things. He'd found it useful in the past, being able to take a crush or anger or fear or whatever and stick it in a neat little box somewhere deep inside where he didn't have to think about it too much, or at all. It wasn't until Darren came into his life that he realised that it wasn't always going to work that way. A few weeks after they first met, Chris realised that he was developing a crush on Darren which was both inappropriate for the workplace, and also meant risking their growing friendship if Darren ever found out. But every time Chris tried to stuff his stupid Darren-shaped feelings deep down inside him, they found a way back out. He blamed Darren, generally, for being so full of life and easy to crush on. It was easier to do that than try to handle things rationally. Instead he developed a different way of dealing with his crush – he settled into a risky routine of daily flirty banter, occasionally allowed himself to believe that there was the slightest chance Darren felt the same way, and then went home and watched trashy horror movies while baring his soul to Ashley about the unfairness of life.

After a few minutes Darren emerged, smiling as he perched on the edge of the desk facing Chris. His hair was still damp but most importantly he was now fully clothed. "So, that was unexpected."

"Sorry. I knocked, and you didn't answer, and I don't even know why but I just thought I'd try the door. And when it opened and you weren't anywhere to be seen, I had all these awful thoughts of overzealous fans sneaking in and, you know, roofying you."

"It's a little concerning your mind goes to 'drugged' before 'showering', but I appreciate the thought," Darren laughed. 

"You know me, ever the optimist!" He was mostly joking, but he had learned to be careful these past couple of years. 

"Seriously though – you know the fans aren't staying in this hotel."

"Like that would stop some of them. I know the majority of them are great – I wouldn't have agreed to come to this otherwise – but you better than most know how much they can like to... touch."

Darren nodded and reached out for Chris's hand, squeezing it gently with a smile. "I know. I'll be more careful."

Chris smiled and stood up. "That's all I wanted to hear. If I come up here and you've got somebody playing poseable Darren with your unconscious body, I will stand here until you come around just so that I can say I told you so." As he laughed and dodged a smack on the arm from Darren, he moved towards the door. "I just came to tell you they're taking us over to the venue now, so I'll see you when they finally let you out of solitary confinement and I can actually tweet this picture I took of you sleeping on the plane." Chris ducked out of the door as Darren dived for the hand holding his phone, and he laughed and yelled "kidding!" back into the room just before the door slammed shut.

–

Chris was standing behind the stage with a glass of Diet Coke in his hand, hidden from view by a thick black curtain. He was just considering peeking out to see how many people were in the crowd, when he spotted Romy entering the room and dumped his glass on the nearest table as he flung his arms around her neck. "My step-mom's here! Yay!" 

She laughed and hugged him back. "I don't know how you kids are even still awake, let alone acting this energetic. Us old folk landed a couple of days ago for some sightseeing and I'm still totally wiped."

The audience noise on the other side of the curtain was settling down, and before he could engage Romy in more conversation about things she'd seen and done in London, Jake led Ashley and Jenna through from the makeshift green room and picked up a microphone from the tech desk. 

He smiled at the assembled group of guests. "Okay, we're ready to start. Our surprise guests will be coming up from the car park once I've started, to minimise the chances of them running into any of the attendees before we bring them out on stage. Everybody ready?" Everybody nodded. "Okay, great! I'll go and kick things off!"

There was a cheer from the audience as Jake emerged onto the stage, the assembled crowd quickly quietening down as he started to speak. "Hi, everybody! Wow, the room is full tonight – I take it everybody's excited?" The audience whooped and Jake laughed. "Okay, then I won't keep you waiting any longer. Shall we start bringing our guests out?" Another cheer followed and Chris heard a rustle of paper as Jake started arranging his notes.

"Okay – our first guest is no stranger to conventions. He's been in over two hundred films and a number of TV shows, including appearing in a recurring role during the second season of Heroes. But on Glee, you know him best as former glee club director and local drug dealer, Sandy Ryerson – please welcome Stephen Tobolowsky to the stage!"

The applause broke out again as Stephen headed out, and Chris smiled. Stephen had been a relatively late replacement guest, stepping in to take the place of Harry Shum who had been forced to cancel just a few weeks ago. Chris had received a handful of messages on Twitter complaining that Stephen wasn't a good replacement and couldn't he maybe bring somebody else instead? He'd ignored them, of course, and he knew that Stephen would be a massive hit – the man's hilarious.

He was pulled from this thoughts as he felt a nudge beside him. He looked up to see Darren standing there with a smile on his face that Chris thought could probably realistically be referred to as 'mile wide'. "Did you make it sighting free?"

Darren nodded. "Jessalyn and I sat in a blacked out car in the parking lot for about forty minutes before they brought us up in the goods elevator. It comes out right behind the door here – pretty sure nobody saw either of us."

Chris grinned. "Sounds like something out of a spy movie." 

"That's what I said."

Stephen reappeared, handing a microphone to Romy with a smile and high-fiving Ashley as he moved up against the wall and out of the way. 

"Good crowd," he commented, as Chris tuned back in to the introductions happening on stage. 

"-Finn's mother and Kurt's step-mother, give it up for Romy Rosemont!"

Romy waved as she stepped out onto the stage, and waited for the crowd to quieten before bringing the microphone up to her mouth. "Hi, everybody! I'm really excited to be here – I'm a convention _virgin_ , so be gentle with me!" She cackled as the crowd whooped at her terminology, and then waved again as she stepped back through the curtains. 

"Our next guest," Jake began, and Chris shifted a little so that he could see through a gap in the curtains. He wanted to see their faces as they tried to work out who was coming next, since Jessalyn hadn't been announced ahead of time. "Our next guest was also a part of the Heroes family, as well as appearing in multiple episodes of Nip/Tuck and Friday Night Lights." Chris laughed to himself as realisation dawned on some people's faces and they whispered frantically to their neighbours. "On Glee she was just a little bit crazy, faking a pregnancy and trying to buy a baby. Can we have a warm welcome for the woman behind Terri Schuester, it's Jessalyn Gilsig!"

Jessalyn moved onto the stage and Chris laughed, stepping back away from the curtains. "If they're this excited now, imagine what they'll do when they figure out you're here," he muttered to Darren, while Jessalyn told the audience how excited she was to be back in London and how she was looking forward to meet each and every one of them this weekend. 

Ashley was next up, dancing onto the stage after her introduction. "Awesome reception, guys! If I could high five every single one of you right now, I would. But there's plenty of time for that! Is everybody ready to party?" She held her microphone out to the audience and grinned as they all cheered. "That's what I'm talking about! All right, there's a couple of people back here that I think you're all more excited about than you are about seeing me, but I will catch you all on the dance floor later!"

Chris rolled his eyes at Ashley as she reappeared in front of him. "You're going to have a sore hand by the end of the weekend. You know they're all going to take you up on that high five offer."

She shrugged at him as she handed her microphone to Jenna. "Sounds awesome!"

"Next up is a girl who made a name for herself on Broadway with roles in The King and I and Spring Awakening before she joined the cast of Glee in 2009. You all know her as Tina Cohen-Chang – please give a massive welcome to Jenna Ushkowitz!"

Jenna giggled and practically skipped out on stage. "Hi guys!" She waved at them and then dug her hand into her pocket, pulling out her phone. "So I'm really excited, but we have all weekend to talk about me. Right now I have a little message for you from somebody who's really disappointed he couldn't be here this weekend." She tapped her phone a couple of times and then held the microphone up to it, and Harry's voice floated out. "Hi everybody! I'm totally bummed I have to work this weekend and can't be there with you all. Jenna and the guys are going to have to party extra hard with everyone to make up for all the booty shaking I was planning on doing. I hope I'll get to see you all sometime soon!" 

Jenna smiled at the crowd who were all cheering again – _god, they love to cheer_ , Chris thought to himself – and then she disappeared back behind the curtain, passing the microphone to Chris. "Your turn."

Chris's skin prickled with excitement as he listened to his own introduction. 

"Our last guest doesn't really need an introduction – but I'll give him one anyway. He's a singer, dancer, actor, author and writer. He wrote a movie and then starred in it too, his first book is coming out next week, he's written a pilot for the Disney channel and amongst all of this, he managed to find time to win a Golden Globe for his work on Glee. I want you all to give a massive, massive welcome to the one and only Mister Chris Colfer!"

Chris felt Darren's hand on his back pressing him out towards the stage. He let himself be pushed out there and could hear Darren and Ashley hollering their own cheers from behind him. He blushed – the room was nowhere near the size that the crowd in San Diego last weekend had been, but these people were only here for them. He was pretty sure the majority of the people at their Comic Con panel had only been in the room because they were waiting for Doctor Who, not that he could blame them for that. "Hi!" He practically yelled it, and then just laughed as they all carried on cheering. Eventually they quietened down enough that he could make himself heard. "Hi," he tried again, still laughing. "I'm really excited about this weekend, it's going to be so much fun, I can just feel it. I can't wait to meet you all, and take pictures with you all, and sign my name so many times I can't feel my hand any more." He laughed again, and waved. "I'll see you later tonight!"

He skipped down the steps and stood beside Darren. "Ready for the room to explode?"

Darren nodded with a grin. "You bet I am."

Chris kept hold of the microphone, tossing it from hand to hand as he listened to Jake starting to wrap things up. "So we have six amazing guests, and we're going to have a brilliant weekend with them all. Would you like to see them one more time?"

Chris tapped the mic to check it was still switched on, and cleared his throat into it as he started to walk back out onto the stage. "Wait, wait, wait." The room, which had started to get restless now that all the guests had been announced, went silent. "Wait." 

Jake turned to look at Chris, faking curiosity. "Chris? Is something wrong?"

Chris nodded at him and then looked out at the audience. "Yeah. I mean, this is a great lineup, and everything, but … I just think all of these guys deserve something a bit... more." He grinned. "Would you guys like another guest?" When they all yelled out to indicate that they would, he laughed. "Okay. It's a tough ask, but I'll see what I can find back here. Hold on." He walked backstage, talking into his microphone as he went. "No... nothing there.. no, that's just the janitor ... ah!" He grinned at Darren and grabbed his hand. "How about this?" 

He dragged Darren behind him and passed him the microphone just as they stepped onto the stage. Chris moved to one side and as soon as they got a glimpse of Darren the audience started screaming. It sounded painful but Chris was pretty sure they were just excited – he was just starting to wish he'd thought to bring earplugs.

Darren cracked up, almost bent double as he laughed into the microphone. "Hi guys!" Darren looked over at Chris, his eyes sparkling as he waited for them to calm down a little. "So I'm really happy to be here," he started, and they cheered again. "And I'm super glad you all came!" The audience was punctuating each of his sentence fragments with a cheer. If he didn't want to be standing on the stage all night, Darren figured he was just going to have to push on and finish up his little speech without stopping for breath.

"So I talked to Jake here, and since he was kind enough to let me crash your party, I thought it might be nice if I played you a few songs at some point. So we thought that tomorrow night after the costume contest-"

"They call it fancy dress here!" Chris exclaimed, leaning into Jake's microphone.

Darren laughed at him, putting on an accent and making air quotes as he repeated Chris's words. "-yeah, sorry – after the 'fancy dress competition' – I'd put on a little concert for you guys. Do you like the sound of that?"

Chris plugged his ears with his fingers as the crowd went wild and Darren cracked up again. Jake called for the rest of the guests to come back out on stage and Jenna leapt onto Darren's back with a grin while they all stood waving and posing for photos. As they streamed off stage, Jake gave out some announcements about the rest of the night's activities, starting with a private meet and greet for the VIP ticket holders. 

"Ready to go meet your adoring public?" Chris grinned at Darren as they headed back into the little private room that was being used as a green room. 

" _Our_ adoring public," Darren corrected with a smile. "Let's do this."

–

Chris smiled around the table as he stood up. "It was lovely to meet you all! See you later!" 

There was a chorus of goodbyes from the eight girls sat around the meet and greet table, and Chris turned to Sally, a friendly brunette girl who had been appointed to be his assistant for the weekend. "Where next?" 

The [room the meet and greet was held in](http://i41.tinypic.com/nz0dck.jpg) was pretty; it even had a little waterfall at the back. There were fifteen or so large round tables spread around the room, with eight people sitting at each one. The guests were moving around the tables, spending five minutes chatting to each group before moving on to the next. He knew that Sally was in charge of making sure he didn’t skip any tables and he’d seen her scoping out where each of the other guests were currently sitting. 

She guided him to a table with a mixture of boys and girls, and he sat down. "Hi!" He looked around at them – he was sure there were more than eight people here. "Okay, can we do names? I’m Chris," he grinned as everybody laughed and obliged, introducing themselves. "So are you guys all friends? A lot of the other tables have just been people who couldn’t find anywhere else to sit."

One of the girls - who'd just introduced herself as Amy - laughed. "No, we’re all friends. That’s why there’s so many of us at the one table – we’re squished together because we didn’t want to be split up!" She gestured to the girl beside her and Chris could see that they were actually sharing a chair.

"That’s really cool. So do you come to these things a lot?" 

Before anybody could answer, he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. He looked up and Darren leaned over him, reaching out towards a plate of cookies in the middle of the table. "Have you tried one of these yet?"

Chris shook his head, and Darren picked up a second, handing it over. "You’ve got to, man. They have _one gram of fat!_ " 

Chris eyed it suspiciously, squeezing it between his thumb and forefinger. "It seems to be chocolate and cake. How can that be true?"

Darren shrugs and grins. "I swear it is! She showed me the box." He bit into the one in his hand and then showed it to Chris. "Look! Orangey." He nudged Chris’s shoulder with the back of his hand. "Go on. They’re so good. Why have I not always been eating these when I've been in the UK? What are they called again?"

"Jaffa Cakes."

"Jaffa Cakes!" Darren repeated, taking another one and shoving it whole into his mouth as his assistant tapped him on the shoulder with a sigh. "Oops, I’m supposed to be somewhere else. You didn’t see me. I wasn’t here." He grinned and bounced away, following his assistant. Chris turned back to the group of people who were watching this exchange with amusement.

"Honestly, I have no idea how we managed to keep it a secret that he was here. That poor girl is going to be so sick of him by..." he bit into the cake, thinking. "Probably the end of tonight, actually. Man, this thing _is_ good. Mind if I have another one?"

–

As Chris finished up with his last table, he told Sally he'd be right out and detoured past Darren, who he was not surprised to discover was the only guest who still had people to see. The last three tables had been pushed together to save time and they were all gathered around, mesmerised by Darren. Nothing new there. 

Chris poked Darren on the shoulder and smiled at him when he looked up. "Ashley went to 'bust a move' – her words – on the dancefloor. I'm going to go either rescue her or watch. I'll decide when I get there."

Darren laughed. "See you back at the hotel."

Chris nodded and started to move away, when Darren reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Chris, wait."

He turned back, tilting his head. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen this cake? It's amazing."

Chris laughed as his eyes settled on the birthday cake on the table. He remembered hanging out with that group an hour or so previously, though he'd had so many conversations tonight that if pressed he wouldn't be able to remember what they'd talked about, other than that the girl in question's birthday wasn't actually until tomorrow. "I did, yeah. It's pretty impressive. Ace of Cakes-worthy." It was. It was incredibly detailed – there was a stage, and lockers, and slushies. There were even a group of Cheerios dancing around the cake board. 

"Did you eat some?"

Chris shook his head. "No – I couldn't let them cut into that masterpiece!" He glanced down at the plate of cake in front of Darren. "Obviously you did not have that problem." 

Darren grinned sheepishly, his mouth full of cake. "It's good cake." He tugged at Chris's hand and moved over on his seat, patting the space beside him. "Share my chair. Have cake! Hey, who has a camera? Oh wait, I have my phone." 

Chris sat down and leaned towards the people nearest to him. "He's not even drunk. He's always like this."

Darren elbowed him in the side as he passed him a lump of cake. "Hey!" He took a photo of what was left of the cake's design – including a headless Cheerio which had apparently been Ashley's doing – and then put one hand under the board to tilt it slightly and passed his phone to a boy on Chris's left. "Take a picture of us with the cake for me? I'd do it myself but I don't have enough hands."

Chris leaned in to Darren's shoulder and posed for the photo, and then stood up. "You can have the rest of your seat back now while you finish up here – I'm going to find Ashley." He smiled at the assembled crowd, especially the birthday girl. "Thank you for sharing your cake with us – it was delicious." As he left, he patted Darren on the shoulder. "Don't keep these nice people up too late, will you?"

Darren rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out. "I'll try, _mom_."

Chris smirked as he left. 

–

He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep when he was woken by a gentle but incessant knocking on the door of his room. He blinked a few times and glanced over at the TV, which was no longer playing When Harry Met Sally but instead seemed to be showing live roulette.

"Coming," he called out, and the knocking stopped. 

He fiddled with the chain on the door, not wanting to open it fully until he knew who was on the other side, when a voice floated through it. "You can take the chain off, it's me."

Chris smiled as he dropped the chain from between his fingers and opened the door to find Darren standing there, resting against the frame. "Hi."

Darren grinned. "Hi. This is how you're supposed to enter somebody's hotel room – knocking!" Chris reddened as his mind flashed to his encounter with Darren in the bathroom earlier, but if Darren noticed the flush across Chris's cheeks he didn't say anything. "Jaffa Cake?" He tilted the box in his hand towards Chris.

"You know, they might only have one gram of fat but that's in _every one_. If you eat all of the boxes you're still going to get fat." 

"Eventually maybe," Darren joked, squinting at Chris and then looking at his watch, as if he'd only just realised that it was well after midnight. "Shit, were you sleeping?"

Chris nodded as a yawn escaped. "Yeah, but not on purpose." He stepped back to let Darren into the room. "I was just watching a movie and checking out some of the gifts people gave me and then all of a sudden the movie's done and you're here."

"Ooh, gifts!" Darren flopped onto the bed beside the pile of scrapbooks and candy, and Chris laughed, sitting down next to him. "I got mostly letters, I guess because I wasn't meant to be here. Most of them started with 'I hope Chris remembers to give this to you'."

"Most of mine end with 'P.S. - say hi to Darren for me!', so I guess we're even."

Darren laughed and picked up a book while Chris was busy investigating the contents of a box of chocolates. "This is really cool!" 

"Hmm?" Chris glanced up to see what Darren was looking at. He smiled, recognising it as a bunch of postcards sent from all over the world and collected into a book. "Yeah, I think that's my favourite one. They got people to send in pictures of their hometown and write a message on the back so I could – and I'm quoting – 'see how widespread my fanbase is'. They're arranged by continent, it's _insane_." 

"This one says 'Dear Chris Colfer, one day I marry you.' That's very assertive."

Chris snorted. "Yeah."

"Ashley and Jenna were still partying when I came back. There were an insane amount of Dalton blazers in that room!"

"Yeah, apparently the theme was 'school disco'. It was half Warbler wannabes and half Britney Spearses." Chris paused and looked up. "How come you came back? After an spending an entire afternoon by yourself I thought you would be exploding with the need to interact."

"I was. Then I spent three hours interacting and it quenched my thirst for human contact."

"So you came to me, that's lovely," Chris teased.

Darren shrugged sheepishly. "I was bored within about thirty seconds of leaving the con."

Chris guffawed. "Of course you were." 

"These beds are really comfortable," Darren observed, closing his eyes.

"Don't you dare fall asleep, Darren. I had to share my tiny plane-bed with Jenna last night thanks to you, I'm not giving up one inch of this mattress tonight."

"I won't," he mumbled, and Chris laughed quietly. 

He spent a while reading a beautiful scrapbook put together by a girl from Baltimore who'd attended every single show on the US leg of last year's Glee tour and had flown over to the UK specially for the convention. It was ridiculously detailed and included her tickets for each concert, notes she'd been given by friends she'd made at the different shows, hand drawn maps and diary entries from each venue. He had been lost for words when he first saw it and had asked her four times if she was sure she wanted to part with all of her memories of her summer. She was insistent, so he had promised to take it back to set with him and make sure everybody saw it. He put the book aside and glanced down at Darren. It had been over an hour since either of them had spoken and Darren had been snoring gently for most of that time. Chris had been trying to ignore the fact that he was there, but eventually he gave in and stared at him a little.

Darren was attractive all of the time; there was no point in even trying to deny that. But there was something about the way he looked when he slept that made Chris all fuzzy inside. When Darren was awake he was a constant source of energy - even in the rare moments when he was being quiet you could see his mind working on at least three things at once. But when he was sleeping, with his mouth hanging open and his body actually still, he was _gorgeous_. But that was a road that only led to bad things, like dark forests or dead ends or other road-based metaphors that meant he shouldn't be having thoughts like that about his friend. So no more staring at Darren. Or thinking about their little bathroom encounter earlier. 

"Hey," he murmured, kicking Darren's leg gently with his bare foot. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

Darren rubbed his eyes and looked up at Chris, blinking. "I did exactly what you told me not to, didn't I?"

Chris laughed quietly. "Yeah, but I forgive you." He smiled sweetly. "Now get out."

"What time are you going to get breakfast?" Darren pulled his schedule from his pocket as he stood up, looking for his shoes. He didn't even remember taking them off.

"Around eight, I think. I have a photo shoot at nine with Romy and Jenna."

"Okay. Apparently I don't have to be there until ten, so I'll just see you there." He shoved the paper back in his pocket and smiled. "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah. 'Night." Chris followed him to the door and watched as Darren disappeared down the hall before closing the door and putting the chain back in place. He switched off the television and got himself ready for bed, and then finally climbed under the covers and reached for his phone, scrolling through until he found Ashley's name.

_I can't stop thinking about Darren naked._

She replied almost instantly. _Who can! Breakfast @ 8?_

 

**Saturday**

Breakfast with Ashley started pretty much the way Chris expected it would. She gave him approximately seven minutes to eat his grapefruit and talk about the fans he'd met the night before while she just watched him. Eventually, she spoke.

"So are you going to talk about what you actually wanted to talk about? Because I realise you're due for a photoshoot at nine, but I don't have to be there for another hour after that and since Jenna and I only got to bed like three hours ago, I'm doing you a huge solid by even having my eyes open right now. If you don't elaborate on 'I can't stop thinking about Darren naked' some time in the next two sentences, I reserve the right to go back to bed."

Chris sighed and stabbed his spoon at his breakfast. "Fine." He sighed. "Long version or short version?"

"That's two sentences. I'm out of here."

Chris stuck his tongue out at her. "Those were fragments. No verbs. They don't count."

"Whatever. Short version please."

"I walked into Darren's bathroom yesterday as he was getting out of the shower. You got the rest from my text."

Ashley's mouth dropped open. "Wait – you're talking _actual naked Darren_? I assumed you meant the imaginary naked Darren who lives in your head. Because we all have one of those." She looked around her and waved her hand towards a server. "I need coffee to process this."

Chris concentrated on his grapefruit again until Ashley was sufficiently caffeinated. "Okay. Long version now, please."

She listened as Chris filled in the details, from the moment he invaded Darren's bathroom - "You just _walked in_? Of all the bathroom activities he could have been doing, the majority of them require at least partial nudity. What were you thinking?!" - to Darren falling asleep on his bed. And then stared Chris for a good minute and a half, until he was wriggling uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Say something."

She cocked her head and stared at him for a few seconds longer. "I can't believe you saw Darren _naked_ over twelve hours ago and it took you until now to tell me."

"Super helpful, Ash. Awesome job."

"Look, the way I see it, you two are basically boyfriends without any of the benefits. If you're going to start getting all awkward about it, you might as well just fuck him so that at least you have a reason for it."

"Seriously, why do I tell you things?"

"Because I'm your best friend and you love me?"

"Mmm. Maybe. Or maybe it's because my choice right now is between you and Jenna, and Ushkowitz is a blabbermouth?"

"Do you want my advice or not?"

"Yes. Wait. No? I don't know. Give me a clue?"

"You're being super difficult for somebody in the middle of an emotional crisis, Christopher."

Chris sighed and slumped back in his chair. "I'm-"

"Deflecting attention from your actual feelings with humour. I know."

He pouted and stared into his grapefruit while Ashley finished her coffee and munched on a bagel, and then whined at her. "Help me?"

"You're not going to like it."

"You're going to tell me to tell him I like him, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"No."

She sighed. "Here's what I think. Don't look at me like that, you asked for it." 

"Fine."

"You like him. He at least acts like he likes you. You're completely obnoxious when you're together in that way that only couples are, except you're not getting any of the best parts of actually dating somebody, which totally blows. So yes. I think you should tell him."

"But what if-"

"If he doesn't like you like that?" She smiled as Chris nodded glumly. "Then he's a fool. And he's Darren. He's not likely to let things be awkward." She stuffed the last piece of her bagel into her mouth as she stood up. "I'm going back to bed."

"For an hour?"

"Better than nothing."

"You're ridiculous."

"You should tell him. And then at least you know, you know?"

–

The rest of Saturday was a blur of photoshoots, interviews, and a surreal hour on stage with Ashley where they were questioned about everything from who they would crap on if they were pigeons, to Chris's personal favourite question ever - "if you could go back in time and hug yourself, would you be happier now or then?"

(He had responded that he would definitely be happier now, because apart from anything else he would actually be aware of why he was there, whereas past-Chris would just be incredibly freaked out that some older guy who looked exactly like him was trying to hug him.)

So by the time it rolled around to mid-afternoon and the start of the day's autograph session, Chris was already creeping towards exhausted. Getting the opportunity to chat to everybody while he signed was the only thing that kept him going. After an hour his aching hand meant that for the first time he was incredibly grateful that the release date for his book had been pushed back two weeks, as it meant most people were just having him sign one or two Glee things. Every time he glanced at Darren's table the person standing there had a pile of items from Starkid stuff to posters from solo shows to How To Succeed playbills. Considering nobody had known Darren was coming it looked as though everybody had still brought things just in case he did. 

He'd just said goodbye to an adorable little girl who he wasn't entirely sure was old enough to be watching Glee when a blue Sharpie came flying at him from the direction of Darren's table.

"Ow!" He glared at Darren. "What?"

"Bathroom break?"

Chris nodded – his hand would appreciate the rest – and Sally apologised to the next person in the queue before leading the two of them out to the hotel room that had been reserved for quick breaks during the day. She waited outside while they went in, neither of them moving towards the bathroom but instead both sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"You're such a girl, can't even take a bathroom break without company," Chris teased.

"Yeah, yeah. Man, my hand is killing me. I just needed five minutes."

Chris laughed. "I know what you mean. At least it looks like you're getting an interesting variety of things to sign."

"I am!" He grinned. "One girl brought a freaking Eastwick poster! It was signed by the others, too – she got it at Comic Con that first year I went, the time when I slept in my car. She gushed in great detail about her childhood crush on Paul Gross being the reason she watched Eastwick and therefore being to thank for knowing who I am."

"And what did you say to that?"

"I said I'd thank him if I saw him again."

After grabbing drinks to take with them they headed back to it, and a couple of hours later they emerged victorious. They'd both managed to sign for half the people there and half were left for Sunday. Chris made a mental note to have an ice pack or something on hand for that session.

As Chris had expected, the fancy dress was one of the most ridiculous (but amazing) things he'd ever seen, and he was mad at himself for not bringing a costume so that he could enter too. Maybe next year. After a rather heated discussion they awarded first prize to a group who had come dressed as the New Directions in Gaga vs Kiss mode, and then the tables were hastily removed from in front of the stage as the audience were invited forward onto the dancefloor for Darren's mini concert. 

Chris had always loved watching Darren perform, even from the first time he'd watched A Very Potter Musical at home on his laptop, and that hadn't changed. The audiences were almost as energetic when they were watching as Darren was on the stage, and he was thrilled to be able to sit at the side and watch this particular performance.

Darren called on Jenna to help him sing a couple of Glee numbers, and as she left the stage to a thunderous applause she slipped the microphone to Chris. He smiled at her as he accepted it, and then tuned back into what Darren was saying.

"So I've done a few Glee tracks already tonight, and I know this is a Glee convention but I always like to mix it up a bit – and I think it's clear from the number of Starkid things I've signed today that there's a number of fans amongst you." He laughed as they cheered again, and waited for it to die down before he carried on. "Okay, then since you're all agreeable, this song's called Granger Danger. You guys with video settings on your cameras might want to record this one."

Chris smiled as he watched everybody sing along with Darren as he made his way through the first verse, and then he stood up, taking a deep breath and stepping onto the stage as he launched into the first of Draco's lines. 

When Darren had called him last week and asked if he wanted to sing this with him, he'd almost dropped the phone. He felt totally honoured to be asked to do a Starkid song – he knew it wasn't something Darren had done at any of his other solo shows when he'd had Glee cast members perform with him. Granted, it was usually because there was a Starkid or two there to do that, but Chris had still asked if Darren was sure seven times before he said he'd do it, and even then he'd basically demanded written permission from Lauren before he even attempted to tackle her part. Permission which he'd received in email form first thing the next morning. 

There was something so exhilarating about singing in a show like this, just him and Darren and his guitar, and every single member of the audience singing along at a volume that meant they could barely hear themselves. It was totally different to the vibe at the arena dates he'd played on the Glee tour and that was all he really had to compare it to. 

When they reached the end of the song, Darren was grinning at him and everybody was applauding, and Chris was laughing as he took a bow. Darren clapped along with them, and then leant into his microphone. "So Chris and I want to sing another one together for you, maybe something from Glee this time?"

Chris nodded. "We thought that Perfect would be the obvious choice." For the second time that weekend Chris found himself wishing he'd brought earplugs, as he was close to being deafened by the screaming in the room. "Clearly you agree." 

Darren began to strum the chords with a smile, and Chris launched into the song. It had been one of his favourites they'd performed together on the show, and it worked well at this kind of show. 

When they'd finished, Chris was all ready to retreat from the stage and let Darren have the limelight back, but at dinner they had vaguely discussed the possibility of performing a third song and Darren obviously remembered the conversation.

"Do you want Chris to stay out here for one more song? I asked him earlier if he wanted to do Candles, but he-"

"I said no way! It's a break up song!"

Darren snorted. "So I suggested Baby It's Cold Outside-"

"And I said it's July."

"But it's England. It _is_ cold outside."

"It's a _Christmas_ song, Darren."

"The lyrics don't actually specifically mention Christmas, you know." When Chris looked up at Darren, Darren was beaming back at him and pointing at the cheering crowd, his smile cracked wide in that way Chris knew he could never say no to. "I think they want us to do Baby It's Cold Outside, Chris."

–

Chris stumbled into the green room and flopped down next to Darren on the sofa with a sigh. He'd gotten his second wind for a while after Darren's show, but it was definitely wearing off now – unlike Darren, who was clearly still running on the adrenaline from performing if the way he was talking animatedly with Romy was anything to go by. 

Ashley and Jenna had come bounding into the room around twenty minutes earlier, with Ashley yelling "Seriously dude, you've got to come see this. It's total crazy shit!" as she yanked him up from his seat. So he'd followed them, and stood in the corner of the hall watching as three hundred people danced in perfect time with each other. Every song seemed to have its' own routine and after laughing while he watched three or four dances, Ashley dragged him out to the dance floor to try and join in with a dance set to a song based on the Doctor Who theme tune.

He knew that by agreeing to do what Ashley wanted, he'd be able to sneak off when the song was done, and he was right. While Ashley whooped as the music changed and the Macarena started, he slipped through the throng of people – stunned (yet incredibly thankful) that they were all more interested in keeping time with their dancing than trying to touch him or talk to him – and returned to the green room. 

Which was when he'd collapsed beside Darren, closing his eyes and settling his face against Darren's shoulder as he carried on talking with Romy. 

Their conversation floated over him as he relaxed, still awake enough to hear what they were saying, but not enough to make the effort to join in. She was still laughing at something Darren had said before Chris came into the room, and then took a sip from the wine glass in her hand. "I think the worst one I had was some lady who came up to me on the subway and started screaming at me that I'm not good enough for Burt. I think she wanted him for herself."

Darren cackled as he took a swig of his beer. "What did you do?"

Romy laughed and shrugged. "She was a subway crazy. I just let her have her say and then ignored her. I think that just made her angrier – I got off the train right after that so I don't know what happened next. I was just glad she didn't follow me!"

While she talked, Darren shifted a little and freed his arm from the space between him and Chris. She watched as he moved it to lie along the back of the sofa, his fingers resting gently at the base of Chris's neck. She wasn't even sure that he'd realised he'd done it, but beside him, Chris was acutely aware. As Darren began to trace circles there he relaxed even more into Darren's side, even while feeling a little thrill shoot down his spine. He'd completely tuned Darren and Romy out now, his brain unable to concentrate on anything other than Darren's fingers, until the movement stopped and Darren sat up, pulling away from Chris a little. 

He blinked up at Romy, who was standing in front of them now, obviously saying goodnight to Darren. She looked down at him and smiled. "Are you coming with me? The car's going back to our hotel if you want to come."

Chris shook his head and yawned, closing his eyes again but this time leaning straight back against the sofa. "Always a such a mom, Romy. I'm fine. Just resting, then maybe some more dancing." 

She rolled her eyes as she leant down to kiss him on the cheek. "Fine. But don't bitch at me in the morning – I tried." 

After she left, he felt Darren lean back into the couch and he nudged Chris's shoulder with his own until he took the hint and pressed his face back into Darren's shoulder. His hand fell loosely from where it had been resting on his leg to settle palm up with his knuckles grazing Darren's thigh. 

Chris wasn't sure how much later it was when Darren moved his hand. It felt like seconds, but it was probably at least five minutes. His eyes were still closed when he felt Darren's fingertips trail over his wrist and rest in his palm, rubbing gently back and forth a few times before sliding his hand further up so that their fingertips aligned. Chris couldn't help but stretch his hand out against Darren's and Darren pressed back before moving again and lacing their fingers together.

Chris briefly held back, keeping his hand straight beneath Darren's warm grip, before giving in and curling his fingers around Darren's. After one last brief hesitation, he started to rub his thumb slowly between Darren's wrist and the back of his thumb. 

Chris was too tired to try and figure out what this meant, if it meant anything at all. Darren had always been handsy and affectionate, but this was way more intimate. On the other hand, though, it was _nice_. So he figured why not just go with it – he could always claim he'd been asleep the whole time, if things seemed awkward tomorrow. It's not like that would be unusual for him. 

Of course, Darren's like a freaking mind reader. "Are you awake?" His voice was rough and low, and Chris could feel Darren's breath on his cheek. He blinked a couple of times, getting used to the light in the room again, and then turned his face to look up at Darren. He nodded ever so slightly and smiled a little, before closing his eyes again. 

He felt Darren start to move his hand, separating their fingers, and he fought the urge to grip tighter and stop Darren from pulling away. If Darren was only being friendly when he thought Chris was asleep, then he didn't want to make things weird by becoming all clingy about it. He could easily just- _oh_. 

Chris interrupted his own thoughts when he felt Darren's hand come to rest on his thigh, and pick up the gentle back-and-forth stroking again almost immediately. After a few minutes where Chris felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe, he managed to force some air back into his lungs and opened his eyes, tilting his head back against the back of the sofa and looking up at Darren. "Um," he started. He wished he could hear something other than his heart beating in his ears; he would just have to assume the words were actually making it out of his mouth. "Darren-"

And then suddenly Darren leapt up from his seat and turned back to face Chris, grinning. He held out his hands towards Chris. "Up! We have to dance!"

Chris let Darren pull him up to standing, confused and still tired. "Dance? Now?" 

Instead of answering, Darren tugged on his hand and dragged him out of the door and down the hallway towards the party. The cool air worked to wake him up and calm him down almost as well as if somebody had thrown a glass of water in his face, as he heard the music floating out from the disco and realised the reason Darren had stopped whatever that had been in there was because the song playing was Teenage Dream, not because Chris had ruined the moment by speaking.

"You are a dork and you have bat ears," he mumbled, tripping over his feet a little as he followed Darren towards the music.

"What?" Darren was yelling, despite still having hold of Chris's hand and still only being a yard or two ahead of him, and Chris wasn't sure if that was a terrible attempt at a joke or he actually hadn't heard him.

"I'm having deja vu from the last time we ran through a corridor together with this song playing."

Darren grinned as they walked into the party, coming around from behind the stage. "It was a different version, though."

"Thank god. I would hope even you don't have an ego big enough to run the length of a hotel to dance to a song you sung."

"Just... don't make any bets about that, okay?" Darren laughed a little sheepishly, and Chris rolled his eyes. It was such a contrast from the way they'd been just a few minutes earlier, when the tension in the room had been so thick. But no; this was exactly the way they had always been with each other, easy banter and gentle teasing. He was starting to wonder if he'd imagined the entire encounter, and part of him wanted to just turn around and leave again, to go somewhere where he could ask Darren what just happened.

Darren had already launched himself into the party, though, and was throwing some truly terrible shapes with Ashley. Chris laughed as Jenna bounced over to him, taking his hand and twirling him around, more or less in time with the music. He looked around; the room was still full of the convention attendees, despite it being almost two in the morning, and he spotted Sally dancing nearby with Jenna and Ashley's assistants and a couple of other staff members that he recognised. He caught Sally's eye as he spun past her and she smiled at him. He knew the drill – as guests they were entitled but not obligated to attend the parties, and if they chose to spend time in the room they would be protected from people asking for photos or autographs or attempting to grope. He knew they'd all experienced first-hand what it could be like when fans got overexcited about being within touching distance of them, but at the same time they were all aware that something as simple as somebody being able to say they had danced in the same room as any of them without them being behind a cordon or sequestered in a VIP section could easily make that person's year. 

He turned his attention back to his friends and spun Jenna out, and she let go of his hand as Darren reached for her and Ashley shimmied over to him in Jenna's place. "You're stealing my move," he commented, laughing, and Ashley grinned and produced a glow stick from god knows where and handed it to him while she danced. 

He snapped the stick as the song hit the chorus, copying everybody else in the room as he jumped and pumped the air. He could feel Darren's eyes on him and looked up, watching as he and Jenna managed to incorporate what looked like cha-cha-cha moves into their dancing without any discussion at all. Occasionally Chris felt like his life was actually becoming an episode of Glee. 

Darren was still looking at him, not breaking eye contact with Chris despite the complicated choreography he was pulling off with Jenna. He felt his mouth drying out as he watched the way Darren moved, aware that his own dancing was quickly becoming less of a dance and more of a sway, but unable to care enough to pull his attention back to Ashley. He knew she'd understand. She had a naked Darren living in her head too, after all. 

As the song ended, Ashley launched herself back into the crowd, apparently unconcerned about security or groping – in fact, knowing Ashley she was probably _hoping_ for some groping – and Darren draped an arm around Jenna's shoulder as he raised one eyebrow, still looking at Chris. He licked his lips and then opened his mouth to speak. "Want to get out of here?" 

"No, I think-" Jenna started, unable to see Darren's face from where he stood behind her, but even in the dark she could make out the blush spreading across Chris's cheeks. She untangled herself from Darren's arm and looked at him, and then back at Chris. "I think I'd better check on Ashley." She bounced away, her eyes sparkling as she grinned suggestively at Chris before she disappeared into the party again. 

"Well?"

Chris realised that they were just standing there, staring at each other, while some song he didn't recognise blared out of the speakers and everybody around them was dancing. He nodded, not really trusting himself to speak and still not really sure what Darren was expecting, and Darren moved his arm in the universal gesture for 'you first'. 

Darren was only a step behind as they walked out of the room and as they slipped into the elevator he closed the space altogether. He stood behind Chris, resting his chin on his shoulder and letting one hand rest on Chris's waist. "The car is waiting."

Chris didn't have the presence of mind to question how Darren knew this; right now he knew there were other important questions he should be asking (like _what are we doing_ or _why now_ ) but he couldn't even manage to verbalise those. He just closed his eyes and took a breath, letting himself lean back into Darren as he thanked whoever was listening that the elevator didn't have mirrored walls so that he was able to know for sure that Darren couldn't see his face. "Okay." His voice was little more than a croak. "That's good."

Just before they reached the ground floor, Chris stepped forward slightly out of Darren's grasp, in case there was anybody around. As they slipped out the back door into the parking lot, Chris saw that Darren had been right and the car was waiting for them, and he walked a little faster to make sure he got there first. He pulled open the passenger side door and got in to the front before Darren could say anything else. He knew it was going to be safest if he sat where they couldn't touch each other – for now at least. 

He settled into the seat next to the driver and Darren slid into the back. The drive between the event hotel and the hotel they were all staying in usually took less than five minutes, but typically they hit every red light despite the roads being empty at this time of night. All Chris could hear was Darren breathing in the back and he gripped the inside of the door and tried to ignore it.

When they pulled up outside the hotel Darren politely declined the driver's offer of accompanying them up to their rooms and jumped out, thanking the driver and opening the door for Chris. They walked into the hotel in silence, Darren pressing closer than usual to Chris's side as they took the stairs to their floor instead of risking running into anybody in the elevator. When they reached Darren's room, Darren stopped. "Come in?" 

Chris's breath hitched and he just nodded as Darren unlocked the door and held it open. Chris stepped just far enough into the room that Darren could close the door behind him, and then stood with his back to the door as Darren stepped closer. Chris could hear his heart beating ridiculously fast and was convinced that Darren could too, tilting his head back against the door to watch Darren's hand as it reached above his shoulder. Chris laughed softly as Darren slid the chain into place. "You're learning."

Darren's eyes sparkled as they flicked down from Chris's eyes to his lips, a smile playing at the edges of his mouth as he leant in closer to his friend. "You're a good teacher." The words had barely left his mouth before he'd closed the gap between them, joining their lips in a hungry kiss and sucking on Chris's tongue. Chris's arms came up to rest gently on Darren's shoulders, muscle memory from all the times they'd done this on set. This wasn't on set, though, this was _them_ , and Darren had never kissed him like this in all the times they'd been Kurt and Blaine. 

He was glad he was leaning against the door because otherwise he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stay standing up. He kissed back, unable to stop those images of Darren stepping out of the shower from worming their way back into his brain and a little moan escaped his lips as Darren's fingers slipped underneath his shirt and touched his skin. Oh, _God_. "Darren, wait."

Darren stopped kissing but left his hands against Chris's back as he pulled back a little and looked at Chris inquisitively. 

"What are we doing?" Chris's arms were still looped around Darren's neck, gently stroking the hair at the base of Darren's neck with his fingertips. He didn't want Darren to think he was mad, or that he didn't want this, he just needed to know where it had all come from.

"Um. Kissing?" Darren smiled at him – not his usual bright, wide grin, but a small smile that was almost shy. This was a side of Darren that didn't come out very often and Chris liked it. 

"I know that," he rolled his eyes, trying to steady his nerves. Darren was still close enough that he could feel his breath on his cheek, and it was distracting. "Why, though? I mean – why now? Why..." he sighed. "You know, I actually can't do this." 

Darren frowned. "Did I do something wrong?"

Chris shook his head a little, smiling slightly as he pressed another, much more chaste, kiss to Darren's lips. "No. It's just- I'm exhausted to the point where I've gone so far past my second wind I'm on about wind number six, we have to be working in like five hours, and I know that if I stay here much longer then we're going to do anything but sleep." He licked his lips and noticed Darren's eyes drop down to his mouth again as he did. "I just- yeah. I should go." 

He took a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair, and twisted in Darren's arms, reaching for the chain. Before he could slide it out of the lock, Darren's hand was covering his and Darren's lips were hot on his neck. He moaned quietly again, resisting the urge to either bash his head against the door or just turn around right there and then and drag Darren over to the bed. 

"What happens in London stays in London?" Darren mumbled hopefully, against Chris's neck.

Chris barked a laugh and it pulled him out of the moment. "You are not turning my life into a fucking episode of Friends, Darren." He undid the chain, feeling bolder now he knew Darren was interested in him in return. Turning back to Darren so that they could step away from the door, he reached for Darren's hand and squeezed it a little. "We'll talk tomorrow. Get some sleep. People have paid for pictures with us and we can't let them down by looking like death."

Darren laughed a little as he nodded and stepped aside, letting Chris leave the room. 

It wasn't until Chris was safely back in his own room, the door was locked and he was collapsed on the bed that he pulled out his phone and composed a new message to Ashley. 

_Fucking Darren._

As usual, her reply arrived within minutes. _Like literally? Then why are you texting? Is it bad? Is he bad? That's disappointing._

 

**Sunday**

When Chris's alarm went off less than five hours later, he groaned and pulled the pillow over his head. Making an executive decision to skip breakfast – he had seen a McDonalds next door to the convention hotel and he was sure Sally could get somebody to grab him something – he ended up getting out of bed five minutes before he was meant to leave. 

He'd just put his feet on the ground when the phone in the room rang and he tripped over his shoe in the scramble to answer it. "Hi, sorry, I'll be down in five minutes."

"Chris?" Oh. Darren. He'd been expecting Sally. 

He sunk back down on the bed. "Yeah. I mean, hi."

Darren laughed quietly. "Is everything okay? You're never late." It was true. Chris had never known anybody as much of a stickler for punctuality as he was until he met Darren; neither of them could stand to be late. In fact there had been a memorable couple of weeks on set once when they'd both started arriving earlier and earlier in an attempt to be the first one there, and that had culminated in Darren spending the night in his trailer just to be sure he'd be there before Chris. 

"Yeah," he breathed out. "Yeah, I'm fine." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Just, you know. Jet lag. Tech fail with an unfamiliar alarm clock." He cleared his throat. "Five minutes might have been a little optimistic, I genuinely just got up. Do you think you could cover for me?"

Darren laughed. "Sure. Take your time. They ran a party until four in the morning, I'm pretty sure they don't expect things to be running on time by nine the next day."

It didn't make him feel any better about being late, but he appreciated it. "Thanks."

–

He managed to shower, dress and dry his hair in just under fifteen minutes. He called Sally while he was checking he looked presentable and apologised numerous times in the thirty second conversation. "Relax," she'd laughed. "Sunday mornings are notoriously bad at running to schedule. The car has just dropped Darren off, it's on its way back over for us. I'm waiting in the lobby."

By the time he arrived at the event Darren had polished off a sausage and egg McMuffin and was holding a spare bag with another in it for Chris. "You skipped breakfast too, then?"

Darren laughed and handed Chris the bag. "Yeah." He looked as tired as Chris felt. "Listen, Chris, I-"

"Not now." 

Darren raised his eyebrows, looking a little hurt, but nodded as Chris continued. "We're already late, come on. Where's Ashley?"

Darren snorted. "She's even later than you. I think they're going to get started on the shots of the two of us first, and she's going to join us when she gets here."

Chris nodded and wolfed down his breakfast. "I really ought to put speed-eating on my resume."

They headed into the room where the photos were due to be taken and there was a round of applause as they walked in. Chris blushed and waved, and Darren bounced in behind him, suddenly not looking anywhere near as tired as he had alone with Chris five minutes ago. In the dictionary there should be a picture of Darren next to the word 'showman'. If dictionaries had pictures. 

They positioned themselves in front of the backdrop and the first fan jumped in between them, grinning. Chris rested his arm around her shoulder and he could feel Darren's hand snake around her back, touching Chris's hip. She thanked them and moved out of the shot and the next person was pushed in to place, and the stream of fans kept coming for the next few minutes. He tried to ignore Darren touching him every now and again, occasionally resting his hand on the small of Chris's back instead of the fan in the photo, or touching Chris's shoulder on the odd occasion the photographer held proceedings up while he changed the memory card. The strangest experience came when a mother handed Darren a tiny baby who couldn't have been more than a few months old, and they'd posed together with the child. 

"Don't you want to be in the shot?" Chris had asked the mother, confused.

"No – I just want this for her, for when she's older."

He'd nodded and moved closer to Darren and the child, smiling for the camera and then when the baby had safely been removed from Darren's hands, he leant in to Darren's ear. "I would find that creepy," he whispered. "If my mom suddenly busted out a picture of me when I was a baby and told me I was with somebody who was famous at the time."

Darren laughed. "Yeah, it's strange. But if it's what she wants-"

"Chris and Ashley, please!" The photographer called out the change now that Ashley had arrived, and Darren moved off to the side to watch. By the time the last few pictures were done – a few shots of all three of them together - Chris was dying to sit down and maybe close his eyes for five minutes. He didn't have anything scheduled until his Q&A with Darren in the afternoon, so he was hoping he'd be able to sneak a nap in the green room.

"Chris-" Darren had started to follow Chris out of the room and Chris closed his eyes and stopped walking so that Darren could catch up. He wasn't really any less exhausted than he had been when he'd refused to have this conversation last night. 

This meant he was incredibly thankful when he was interrupted by one of the staff members. "Darren?" She called out his name a little shyly and he turned back to her with a grin. "We've got a handful of people who've asked if they can have a shot of you with Jenna – it's the only combination that we hadn't accounted for when we set up the schedule – so if it's okay with you we thought we could get those done now, before we get started on the people who are here for Jenna's session with Jessalyn?"

Darren nodded. "Sure." 

He looked back at Chris, who smiled at him. "Ash and I will catch you in the green room when you're done."

Darren frowned a little, because he'd been hoping for something a little more private, but he nodded again anyway. "Okay."

As Chris and Ashley headed out of the door with Sally and a couple of other staff members flanking them, Ashley leant towards him and mumbled "I want to hear _everything_."

–

Chris managed to deflect Ashley's questions by going to sleep on the sofa almost immediately that they got into the green room. It was empty when they arrived – with Darren still in the photoshoot room with Jenna and Jessalyn, and Romy and Stephen not scheduled to start until 11, they had the place to themselves. 

"I don't think I've ever known you sleep this much," he heard Ashley mutter as he was starting to doze off. "It's like you're doing it on purpose to annoy me."

–

Chris blinked awake as Jenna smiled over at him from where she'd been deep in conversation with Stephen. He realised she'd been sitting with his legs across her lap and he wriggled to sit up, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, I took up the entire couch."

Jenna stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, you did." Chris laughed and rolled his eyes and Jenna grinned, gesturing to the table in front of him. "Darren brought you a coffee. You guys are on stage in thirty minutes if you want to get some lunch or, like-" she waved her hand at his head. "Fix your hair, or whatever."

He reached out for the coffee and patted absently at his hair with the other hand. "Where's Darren now?" He tried to keep his tone as even as possible. His stomach churned a little as he tried to decide whether he'd rather talk to Darren now or avoid him some more until after they'd been on stage. 

"Holding court at the bar, I think. Surrounded by adoring convention goers or whatever."

"Alone?"

"With like three members of staff enforcing the no groping rule." She grinned. "Did you _see_ that poster in the photo room that reminds people not to grope? What if we want them to grope us? Is it allowed then?" 

"Probably best we just leave the groping out of it, I think." He stretched as he stood up and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said I need to do something with my hair."

Stephen laughed. "One of the many benefits of being follically challenged is being able to take a nap anywhere I like and not _look_ like I just took a nap."

"I'll bear that in mind next time I get a haircut."

Jenna snorted. "I think Ryan would have something to say about it if you turned up for work all... shaved."

Laughing, Chris headed for the bathroom, splashing his face with water and trying to get his hair to look like it did earlier. He debated using his twenty minutes to go back to his hotel room and find a hat, but he knew from yesterday that it would get hot on the stage and he'd end up wanting to take the hat off. Which would leave him with a worse case of hat hair than the bed – couch, whatever - hair he had right now. 

In the end, he took long enough in the bathroom that he made it back into the green room just in time to be herded out onto the stage with Darren, without any time for them to talk about anything even if Chris had wanted to.

Once they got onto stage, Chris relaxed. He knew how to play this part; he and Darren had perfected their stage relationship a long time ago and it was a relief to slip back into that without trying to second guess every touch or comment like he'd been doing in the photo shoot earlier. He settled into the armchair that had been set out on stage for him and curled up into it. 

"How's everybody doing?" He grinned as he looked around the room. "Late night? I know we saw a lot of you dancing the night away, right Darren?"

Darren nodded as he picked up his own microphone. "Absolutely. That was some hardcore partying – I approve. Especially of all those dances you all were doing. You know the ones."

Chris laughed. "If I'm still awake I'm coming back tonight and you guys are teaching me the Star Trek one."

The audience cheered and Darren caught Chris's eye, laughing too. Chris smiled and then turned back to the audience. "So do you guys actually have questions for us, or shall we just ramble? Because we're really good at that."

There was a scramble in the crowd as people stood up to head for the microphone and Chris and Darren started fielding the questions. It only took five minutes before the inevitable one cropped up.

"I have a question for Chris and also one for Darren."

Chris smiled. "Okay, shoot."

"I know you guys get asked this all the time but not usually when you're together. So. Chris, is Darren a good kisser? And Darren, same question, names reversed."

Chris felt himself blushing as last night flashed into his mind. Darren's hand on his leg in the green room. His hand in Darren's hair. Darren's lips on his neck. He blinked and tried to pull his attention back to the audience, fanning himself with his hand and hoping it looked dramatic and over the top instead of like he actually might pass out at any second. He chanced a glance at Darren who was staring at him, a glint in his eye, and Chris was suddenly terrified at what Darren might say in front of these eight hundred strangers.

"They're both awesome!" Ashley's voice interrupted his thoughts as she poked her head from backstage and grabbed his microphone. "Darren's amazing. Super soft lips. I imagine he would be a gentle lover. Sadly it's never gotten that far between us." She stopped and blew a kiss at him, and then turned back to Chris. "And Chris is a total animal in the sack."

Chris cackled and she grinned, handing the microphone back to him and disappearing back behind the partition. "Love you too, Ash," he called, trying to lean backwards over the chair until he could see her face. She mouthed _you're welcome_ and he blushed again, before turning his attention back to the audience. 

Darren was still grinning at him, and raised the microphone to his mouth, licking his lips before speaking. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Chris stared at Darren and then shrugged a little, smirking. "Eh. He's all right. Next question?"

Darren spluttered, laughing a little, and Chris felt himself going red again as Darren continued to stare at him while he tried his very best to concentrate on the girl asking her question.

"Do you guys get on? Like, as a cast, you all seem to be super close, but there are always rumours that secretly you really hate each other."

"I hate them all!" Ashley yelled from behind the screen.

"We hate you too – go _away_!" Chris yelled back at her, glancing briefly at Darren before turning back to answer the question. "No, in all seriousness, we are all absolutely the best of friends. It kind of comes with the territory – we expect it, and we try to ignore it, but when we hear that we're allegedly behaving in ways that we all know we aren't, we have to laugh it off because otherwise we'd go crazy. It's upsetting to hear you're apparently a huge diva or that you treat people badly or think you're better than everybody else when you know that those things aren't true. It's even more upsetting when you hear people saying those things about your best friends."

Darren nodded. "Absolutely. We know that we've put ourselves under this magnifying glass of public attention and a lot of the time time people are jealous and rumours will spread but all we can do is be there for each other and do our best to be good people so that there's no reason for stories like that to ever exist. And try not to let it get to us when they inevitably still do."

"What's your name, honey?" Chris smiled at the girl who was patiently waiting her turn at the microphone. "I'm Chris."

"I know," she giggled. "I'm Alison."

"Hi Alison," Chris and Darren chorused, and then Darren gestured for her to ask her question.

"Okay, so, Darren, obviously earlier this year you had the opportunity to perform on Broadway; would doing something over here in the West End be something either of you would be interested in?"

"Oh, absolutely," Darren nodded enthusiastically. "I mean, of course. Who wouldn't? I only had three weeks on How to Succeed and I would one hundred percent jump at the chance to do something for longer, something I could really make my own." He looked over at Chris. "What about you? Maybe Glee: The Musical?"

Chris snorted into the mic. "How would that even work?" Without giving Darren chance to answer, he shook his head. "No, you know, I think that probably when we're done with Glee, I'd want to leave Kurt behind. While I still remember him fondly. I actually think that right now, if you were to tell me that Glee was ending tomorrow, I'd quite happily kind of pull back from the acting side of things for a while. Concentrate on writing, maybe try directing." He pondered his answer for a moment. "I mean, of _course_ I'd love to do something on the stage. The adrenaline rush would be immense and I would love to try that too. But I wouldn't say it's something I'm actively pursuing as a life goal." He looked over at Darren, glad that they seemed to have dropped out of the uncomfortable zone they'd been in since last night and were just hanging out the same way they always did. Just with eight hundred extra people watching them do it. "God, I sound like a brat, don't I? I think we'll just erase that entire answer I just gave and replace it on record with 'yes, absolutely, I would love to do theatre'."

The rest of the hour flew by. Thankfully, everybody seemed to have gotten the ridiculous questions out of their system on Saturday because Chris was finding himself answering everything with "Wow, that's a really good question!" and actually meaning it. 

As they walked off stage when their talk was done, Darren tugged at Chris's arm before he had a chance to escape. "Can we just-"

"Darren-"

"No – just listen. This won't take long." Darren sighed, and Chris stopped trying to walk away. He glanced nervously over his shoulder towards Sally, who he could tell was watching him carefully even though she was having a conversation of her own with one of the AV crew a few feet away. 

"Okay." Chris smiled a little. "But if you say 'what happens in London stays in London' again, I swear to God Darren-"

Darren laughed quietly, smiling at Chris. "No, I promise not to say that. I just-" he sighed, looking around to see if anybody was listening. Sally had disappeared with the tech guy, and the rest of the backstage area was empty. He knew they were the last people on stage for the day so the room should have been cleared of people on the other side of the screen, too. "I want you to know that last night didn't come from a place of exhaustion or inebriation. It came from months of trying to decide whether or not I should tell you anything or just carry on pretending I only saw you as a friend. It _maybe_ also came from one too many episodes of Friends on the flight over, but hey," he smiled, looking up at Chris again. "That worked out well for them in the end."

"Darren," Chris sighed. "I can't-" He stopped himself as he saw Darren's face fall, and licked his lips before trying again. "I just can't have this conversation with you and then go spend three hours signing autographs with you right across the room. You know me. I'll spend the whole time in my head."

"It might already be too late to avoid that. You're very thinky."

Chris smiled at that, and Darren shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed again. "I get it, okay? You don't want to talk about it. Which I can only assume means that on reflection, you would rather pretend it hadn't happened. I crossed a line, and I'm sorry. Can we just forget all about it and go back to being _normal_ , please? I don't like feeling weird around you."

Chris pressed his lips together, trying desperately to keep anything that would contradict Darren's assumptions from escaping his mouth. "Yeah." He took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, we can do that." 

Darren spotted Sally walking back towards them and grinned, though Chris suspected it was more than a little forced. "So, ready for some more hand cramp?" 

Chris rolled his eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me."

It wasn't until halfway through the autograph session that Chris really thought about the words that Darren had chosen to use. At no point had Darren said that he _wanted_ to pretend that last night never happened. Chris had just let him assume that it was what he wanted. He glanced over at Darren, who of course had chosen that exact moment to pull a little girl onto his lap, jigging her up and down on his knee while he signed her tour programme. 

When Sally gently elbowed him in the side and slid a DVD cover in front of him, he realised he'd completely spaced out watching Darren. He forced a smile and looked up at the woman in front of him apologetically. "He's such an attention whore, always pulling focus even when there aren't any cameras around." He cleared his throat and checked that the child had moved on to Jessalyn's table – he didn't want to ruin what was clearly the highlight of her life so far by distracting Darren when she was sitting with him – before yelling over to the next table. "Hey, Darren!"

Darren looked up. "Yeah?" 

"Stop being so disgustingly cute with the children, it's distracting!" 

Darren beamed back at him. "Just because I'm better at it than you."

Chris sucked in a breath as Darren turned back to the guy in front of him, noticing the smirk on his face had remained. Making small talk with the lady who was still standing patiently at his desk, he signed her DVD and shook her hand as she walked away, and turned his attention to the next person in line. 

He couldn't stop thoughts of Darren drifting into his head while he carried on signing autographs for the next two hours, so he was thankful when the line in front of his table finally disappeared and he realised that he was done while Darren had a number of people still to sign for. 

Waving at the people waiting in Darren's line as he grabbed his water and walked around the back of Darren's chair, he forced himself to pat Darren on the back and lean down to him. _Back to normal, right?_

"We're done. You're slow."

"I'm friendly!"

"I'll say. Anyway, Sally and I are going to go get dinner and I'm going to change before the closing ceremony."

Darren looked up, meeting Chris's eyes and squinting a little. "Cool." Chris could tell that wasn't all Darren wanted to say, but he was being mindful of the line of people watching every tiny interaction between them. "See you later."

"If you ever get out of here."

"I'm not that slow!"

"Whatever you say, Darren." He waved at the line again as he left the room. "Bye guys!"

–

With an hour and an half to himself, Chris flopped face down onto his bed as soon as he got back into his room. He managed to summon the strength to call room service, and then started channel hopping while he waited for his food to arrive.

He was staring at a _Countryfile_ report on some rare birds in Scotland and chewing on his steak sandwich when he finally gave in to his brain's desire to think about Darren. Darren's words were burned into his brain as if they were written on the backs of his eyelids, and he could picture Darren's face while he was saying them so clearly that Darren might as well be standing in front of him saying them again.

_It came from months of trying to decide whether or not I should tell you anything or just carry on pretending I only saw you as a friend._

Pretending. 

_I get it, okay? You don't want to talk about last night._

That was Chris's next clue, which he had conveniently ignored at the time. Darren wanted to talk about it. His focus had been on trying to dissuade Darren from talking about anything at all because he didn't want to hear Darren say the words 'it was a mistake', but Darren was clearly never planning to use those particular words at all. 

_Which I can only assume means that on reflection, you would rather pretend it hadn't happened._

"Again with the assumptions," Chris muttered. "I'm an idiot." Darren's only regret about the whole thing was the thought that Chris didn't feel the same. Well, fuck.

–

After finishing his dinner, showering and changing, deciding he didn't like his outfit and changing again, and then finally changing back to the first outfit (he wasn't sure what the appropriate clothing was for telling your co-worker that you think you might be in love with them, but he was pretty sure it wasn't any of the options he'd packed for his three day trip to London), Chris and Sally made it back to the event just in time for the start of the closing ceremony. 

Darren raised an eyebrow as Chris took his seat at their table at the front of the room, and leant towards him with a smile. "Making a habit out of cutting it fine?"

Ashley laughed as she overheard Darren's question. "I knew eventually he'd start picking up my bad habits."

It turned out that the closing ceremony was very similar to the opening ceremony, except with more goodbyes and less ninja Darren. Chris zoned out a little while Jessalyn was talking, saying her goodbyes and thankyous, because all he could think about was Darren sitting beside him, not quite close enough to touch. 

He stretched his leg out under the table, hoping to rub his calf against Darren's. He wasn't really sure what that was going to achieve or what he hoped would happen next, but realised he'd completely misjudged both the angle and distance when Romy looked up sharply as his foot connected with hers.

"Sorry!" He whispered at her, shrugging his shoulders apologetically, and she laughed. Darren looked between the two of them curiously, and then turned his attention back to Jessalyn just as she sat back down at the table. 

Romy took the stage next, followed by Stephen and then Ashley. It wasn't until Jenna was finishing her speech that Chris managed to nonchalantly graze his fingers against the back of Darren's wrist, which made Darren jerk a little in surprise. He looked over at Chris, who was staring at him intently, and frowned a little. Four hours ago they'd agreed to act like nothing ever happened, and now all of a sudden Chris was changing the playing field again. 

He was about to lean in and ask Chris something – he wasn't quite sure what that something would be, or how he would word it, but it would be something, he knew that for sure – when he realised Jenna was back at the table and rolling the microphone towards him.

"He worked so hard to keep it a secret that he was going to be here, you wouldn't believe some of the lengths he went to, but I think it was worth it! He's an internet sensation and a Broadway star, and he's one of the nicest, most down to earth people I've ever worked with. Everybody put your hands together for Darren Criss!"

Darren blushed at the compliments and took the microphone, scraping his chair back and moving in front of the table to start talking. 

"Wow, that's so nice of you to say that," he turned to where Jake stood at the side, leaning against the tech desk with his own microphone and smiling at Darren. "I've had the best time, thank you so much for inviting me and putting up with all of the crazy crap we had to go through to get me here!" Licking his lips, Darren turned to address the audience directly, meaning that he had his back to Chris. "You guys!" He laughed. "I really have had an absolute blast. I am so blessed to be able to come and do things like this, and hang out with you all and put on little shows like the one last night. Those kind of experiences are just so special, probably even more special for me – for us – than they are for you." He gestured towards the guest table with a smile. "I've absolutely loved having the opportunity to get to know Stephen and Jessalyn this weekend, and I've only worked with Romy a handful of times before so this has been a joy, seriously. I love you guys." He threw the microphone from hand to hand a few times, dancing on the spot before he continued.

"It's obviously always amazing to hang out with Jenna and Ashley, even if Ashley is a total bitch to me sometimes."

Ashley grabbed the spare microphone that was rolling around the table and grinned as she yelled "All out of love, baby!"

Darren smiled. "Yeah, I love you too. I think." He licked his lips and raised his eyebrows to the audience. "I feel like there's somebody I haven't mentioned..." 

Within seconds he could barely hear himself as the crowd started yelling Chris's name, and he laughed into the mic until they calmed down. "Right, right. Mr Colfer." He grinned. "Man, I love Chris. I love working with Chris, I love hanging out with Chris in our down time, I love talking about the most nerdy stuff ever with Chris."

Chris blushed a little as he listened to the things that Darren had to say about him. Pressing his finger to his lips, he stood up, slowly stepping towards where Darren was standing, and hoping that he didn't turn around before he got there. He didn't, and Chris stood half a meter behind Darren with his finger over his lips trying to keep the audience from giving his presence away while Darren continued talking.

"He's become one of my absolute best friends in the world since I started on Glee, I have no problem whatsoever telling you all that. There's not many people that I would willingly choose to spend every day with at work for nine months and _still_ want to come spend a weekend in London with, but Chris is one of them. And since I assume you're all putting this on YouTube practically as we speak, I feel like I should point out that Joey, you are not one of those people. I'm sick of your face," he grinned. "But yeah. I miss Chris when we're having the very brief breaks that we actually get. So this weekend has been amazing, and-"

Chris interrupted Darren's speech by tapping him on the shoulder, and Darren whirled around in surprise. He'd barely lowered the microphone from his mouth when Chris leaned in to kiss him.

It was a stage kiss, for sure. There was only one thing less sexy than kissing somebody in a room full of eight hundred almost-strangers, and that was filming a sex scene in front of a bunch of people who almost certainly weren't all required to be present but had somehow managed to get in there anyway. But it didn't matter. The crowd were getting a 'wow' moment they'd take away from the weekend, and Darren was getting a clear sign that Chris wanted to reopen that discussion they'd had earlier. 

At least Chris hoped that was the signal he was giving off, as opposed to him being the world's biggest tease and a horrible person to boot. 

As they pulled apart, Chris raised his eyebrows ever so slightly and Darren smiled before turning back to the audience while Chris took his seat again. "Apparently Chris misses me too!" He grinned at the cheering crowd, and cleared his throat a little, hoping his burning cheeks weren't incredibly obvious to everybody watching. "I don't really think I need to say anything else after that, do I?" Darren laughed as the attendees continued to cheer. "I've had an amazing time, I love you all so much, and I hope I get to come back and do this again sometime very soon!"

He slid back into the chair next to Chris and leant forward with a smile as he passed over the microphone. "What was that about?" he muttered.

"Dublin," Chris replied with a grin that Darren knew meant more than revenge. He wasn't even listening to himself as he stood up and gave his own speech, feeling Darren's eyes on his back the entire time. 

"I have absolutely loved meeting all of you this weekend, I can't believe it's over. I've particularly loved that fact that I actually don't know what Ryan has planned for next year, other than the most basic bones of how I'm going to be involved – so I can't accidentally spoil anything when I'm talking to you, but I _can_ go back to him with ideas I stole from all of you guys and present them as my own."

Their official duties over, Chris had hoped to sneak back to the hotel, or at the very least the green room – somewhere where he could talk to Darren without fear of being videoed and then have his lips analysed on Tumblr until everybody knew what they'd been saying. Unfortunately Darren inadvertently managed to start a line of people wanting to hug him goodbye, and while he was hanging back chatting with Sally and waiting for Darren, Chris wound up starting a goodbye line of his own. 

Luckily the majority of the eight hundred attendees had either had to leave already or had escaped the crush of the main hall before they had time to notice what was happening, but still, the impromptu Goodbye Line took up the best part of an hour. 

Chris kept his back to Darren while he talked to the groups of people that came up to him. He recognised almost all of them from the photoshoots and autograph sessions over the weekend, even spotting a couple of guys that he remembered sitting in the front row during his talk with Ashley yesterday. It was weird how it made everybody feel like new friends rather than just fans. 

"So are you going to come out and learn the Star Trek dance later?" 

Chris laughed as the last group waiting to talk to him moved forward with bright smiles and cheeky questions. He hadn't noticed Darren finish talking to the mother of the little girl who'd sat on his lap earlier and move over to stand behind him. 

"Yeah Chris. Are you?" 

Chris whirled around at the sound of Darren's voice, his heart suddenly beating like crazy. He laughed nervously. "I, uh. I hope to!" He tried to change the subject but could barely think straight any more with Darren standing so close behind him. When had this become so hard? "So, have you all had a good weekend?" 

"They have," Darren interjected. "It was Kevin's birthday on Thursday. They went to a theme park."

"Oh?" Chris tried to keep himself from squeaking. "Happy belated birthday for Thursday then, Kevin!"

Kevin beamed at Chris. "Thanks. This has been the best birthday weekend ever."

"I'm glad we could be part of it, then." 

"You know what would make it more awesome?" A girl, who Chris guessed was probably Kevin's sister, piped up.

Chris rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Teaching me the Star Trek dance?" 

She grinned. "No." She waited until she saw Chris's eyes open a little wider in surprise. "We'll teach you the Doctor Who one too."

Darren laughed loudly behind him and Chris felt like he was losing his mind. Every time he thought he had things under control, Darren would do something obnoxious like, oh, cough, and Chris would be reminded he was there and what it had felt like when Darren had him pressed up against the door last night, and suddenly the blush would be rising up his cheeks again. He had to get out of there.

Luckily Sally was either a mind reader or just had excellent timing, and moved forward to sling her arms around both men's shoulders. "Sorry to break this up, but we need to start clearing the hall now. The tech crew need to get everything cleared out before the party so they don't have to do it at four in the morning."

"Right, right." Chris shrugged apologetically at the group. "If I don't completely pass out on a couch somewhere, I promise to come back and let you guys teach me those dances later."

Five minutes later they were finally alone, Sally was escorting the last stragglers from the room to make sure they had definitely all gone, and the tech crew hadn't come back in for cleanup yet. 

They stood in silence for thirty seconds, Darren still standing at Chris's right shoulder. "So," Darren started. "I mean... yeah. So."

"We should probably..." Chris trailed off, his back straight as he faced forward, pumping himself up for this conversation. 

"Talk?" Darren stepped forward slightly, settling his hand gently on Chris's back just as Chris turned around to face him. 

"Or something," Chris breathed. He briefly dropped his eyes to Darren's lips and then closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "Not here." 

Darren just nodded as they walked out of the hall, striding side by side but not touching or talking. Luck was on their side and they reached the parking lot without interruption and they recognised the car pulling up outside the door as the same one they'd been using all weekend. 

They hopped into the back seat, sitting together this time, in complete contrast to the previous night. The driver briefly tried to make small talk, mentioning that he had just dropped Romy, Stephen and Jessalyn off at the hotel before he came back to see if anybody else wanted a ride. Chris laughed politely at his stories of rushing back and forth with memory cards and stacks of printed photos, while Darren just stared out of the window. They were both thrilled when this time their luck was in and the lights were all on green as they sped towards the hotel. 

"Call if you want me to bring you back over for the party later," he called out of the door as they jumped out, mumbling their thanks. 

They made it up to their floor in silence, smiling politely at the other passengers in the elevator who thankfully did not seem to recognise them. They refrained from touching to be on the safe side, and it wasn't until they had the door closed behind them in Darren's room that they spoke again. 

Chris exhaled, leaning back against the door after he closed it behind him. Darren had picked up the TV remote and flicked it on, while Chris twisted around to draw the chain across, memories of last night once again fresh in his mind. 

"Darren-"

"Chris-"

They laughed nervously, and Darren flicked the television off again before dropping the remote on an empty chair and turning back to Chris. "I have no idea why I turned that on," he mumbled, smiling a little.

Chris laughed. "I have no idea why you did, either." He scraped his teeth back over his bottom lip. "I have no idea why you do most things you do." 

Darren smiled wider, taking a step closer to Chris. " _I_ have no idea most of the time, so why should you?"

"What was last night?" Chris heard the words leaving his mouth; they were the words he wanted to ask but hadn't expected to have the courage to say, except now he really just wanted to _know_. "Where- I mean- what-" he cleared his throat and started again. "Why?"

"That's a lot of questions."

"Feel free to answer any one of them. Take your pick. They pretty much all lead to the same place anyway." A smile was playing on Chris's lips. He could handle this. The banter was back again, and it was easy and somehow comforting. 

Darren stayed fixed to the spot, three feet away from Chris. Chris was aware that two steps would put him right in Darren's space, but he felt safer staying where he was, where he couldn't just reach out and touch Darren. Because while he knew that would probably lead to kissing and groping and all kinds of good things, it definitely wouldn't be particularly conducive to talking or answers. 

"The 'why' is the easiest. Because I wanted to." Chris held Darren's gaze and Darren took that as a sign to continue. "I've wanted to for a while, but I figured, you know. Inappropriate. Colleagues, and friends, and everything."

"So why..." Chris gestured vaguely with his hand, and he knew Darren didn't need for him to finish the question.

"Because what happens in London stays in London." 

Chris rolled his eyes and turned a way a little, debating leaving, trying not to get angry or emotional in any way, when Darren was the one to close the gap between them and take hold of Chris's shoulders. 

"No," he started, softly. "Not because I'm just looking for a quick – you know. Whatever. No." Chris relaxed a little in Darren's grip and in return Darren stopped holding him quite so tightly. "Because I was giving _you_ a way out. And then the way you were avoiding me today, I figured I was probably right, so I tried to back off." He smiled a little. "You're confusing."

"I'm _confused_ , of course I'm confusing." He took a deep breath and smiled back at Darren. "You like me?"

"Yes."

"And you have for a while?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"You didn't say anything either." He paused. "I feel like this is an interrogation. Can I have a glass of water? Can I sit down? Do I get my one phone call?"

Chris smiled, but for the most part he ignored Darren's nervous quips. "I just- you- we- I-"

"You're very eloquent tonight."

"Oh, fuck you."

Darren raised his eyebrows with a giggle – an actual, honest-to-god _giggle_ \- and beamed at Chris. "Is that a promise?"

Chris felt Darren's hands drop to his waist as he leant closer, catching Darren's lips in a kiss before pulling back, a teasing smile on his face. "We'll see."

Darren beamed back at him, settling his arms around Chris's waist. "I thought if I was ever going to make my move-" he paused to prod Chris in the side as a snort escaped from the taller boy, "-then this weekend would be a really good time. It's practically the only time all year we get a few weeks apart, so if you weren't- if you didn't want to, if you didn't _feel_ anything, then the awkwardness might fade before we had to work together again. Or something."

"I see." Chris smiled, leaning his forehead against Darren's and letting their lips rest together. "You've really thought this through."

"It was the main reason I worked so hard to make sure I made it over here this weekend." 

"I feel honoured." Chris paused. "One thing, though."

"What's that?" Darren murmured, closing his eyes and relaxing against Chris, who in turn let the door take most of his weight. 

"Did you think about what what happen if I _did_ want to try this? Because now we have three weeks apart - I have a book signing tour, you have gigs..." he trailed off, a little amused.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Chris laughed, kissing Darren again. It confused him how it could feel so natural to lean in to kiss Darren whenever he wanted to, and still send such a thrill right down to his toes when their lips touched, knowing that it wasn't acting. "We'll work something out. That's a problem for Future Us." He smiled, tangling the fingers of his left hand up in Darren's hair. Dropping his voice low, he whispered against Darren's lips. "But Present Chris wants to know what we're going to do _now_." 

"We could always go back to the con and learn those dances." Darren looked up and grinned at the incredulous expression on Chris's face. "No?"

Chris shook his head defiantly. "No."

"We could probably learn them in here anyway. We have YouTube."

"If we're learning dances, Darren, I can think of better ones."

Darren tilted his head, faking confusion. "Really? But...we already know the Macarena."

Chris was unable to stop a guffaw escaping his mouth before quickly trying to school his face back into something sexier. He pushed Darren towards the bed with a sweet smile. "Stop being smart with me or that thing I potentially agreed to earlier will definitely not be happening."

**Author's Note:**

> There are a couple of bonus bits I made myself from random information I had worked out in my head when trying to figure out who would be where when. So you can view Darren's schedule (which he checks towards the end of part one) in [PDF](http://www.mediafire.com/?fuw686h1odvmz0z) or [JPG](http://i44.tinypic.com/elbgu9.jpg) format, and the full weekend schedule as it would be handed out to the attendees, also in [PDF](http://www.mediafire.com/?r346pbbp427mths) or JPG ([side 1](http://i41.tinypic.com/1z3b61l.jpg)/[side 2](http://i42.tinypic.com/34q1u1k.jpg)) format :)


End file.
